By David Dent
Back in 1996, during a so called ‘Summer of Fear’ in a northern town (so named because of a rash of disappearances of young people causing the townsfolk to become overly protective of their sons and daughters) little Claire eggs her young friend Danny to distract a shopkeeper while she secretly nicks sweets. But the jape goes wrong when Danny is mysteriously snatched, joining the ranks of the missing. And dead.
25 years later Claire (Sophia La Porta), now an entertainment podcaster, still harbours guilt, particularly when it appears that the man jailed for the crimes is set for release. She is approached by Danny’s father Bill (David Edward Robertson) to use her communication skills to help keep alive the search for the little boy’s body and keep the main responsible in prison; perhaps preying on that guilt he ropes in Claire, alongside psychic friend Alex (Mark Peachey) and Alex’s equally spiritually gifted daughter Eleanor (Elizabeth Dormer-Phillips), to comb the moors, which he believes is Danny’s resting place. But as the wild terrain begins to exert an eerie hold on the group, and Bill’s obsessiveness increases, Claire begins to feel that something more than human could be behind the mystery.
Chris Cronin’s debut feature isn’t afraid to take things slow; for most of its running time, The Moor is a prolonged but beautifully acted study in grief and the need to achieve closure in the face of the most horrific emotional suffering. Only in the film’s last third do the supernatural elements really introduce themselves, but the director handles this transition seamlessly; he may save his most shocking reveal until the film’s closing moments, but the sense of dread he builds up means that The Moor’s climax is both alarming and, strangely, satisfying.
La Porta and Robertson excel in their roles; the former a woman existing via a defining life moment in her past which dictates her present, and the latter consumed with the need to find both justice and solace. There’s a nagging sense of history throughout the movie; Bill’s search recalls the desperation of the family of Moors Murders victim Keith Bennett to find the location of his burial. As such an accusation of insensitivity could be levelled at the filmmakers, but The Moor is a considered and affecting film which strikes a powerful and horrifying balance between the human and the supernatural.
The Moor screens as part of Frightfest 2023.
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